Sport-Specific Coaching

Sport-Specific Coaching - Introduction

DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERT COACHES OF TEAM SPORTS

Research with Athletes
Research with Coaches

DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERT COACHES OF TEAM SPORTS

John H. Salmela

Sport psychology was initially deemed into existence, not by the desire of sport scientists to understand how normal individuals perform in sport, but by how exceptional athletes and coaches perform their respective jobs. This understanding resulted in research efforts which were directed by the precepts of orthodox science and took place in controlled laboratory settings. This form of research led Martens (1979) to state:
- I am concerned about the failures in replication abilities of sport psychology research. I have doubts about the snapshot model of linear causation so fundamental to laboratory experimentation; doubts indeed that the categories of ANOVA with its neatly isolated independent and dependent variables can provide a useful model of what goes on in the personal and social world of sport. I have misgivings about the use and deception, and more generally with the manipulations used in laboratory studies. In fact, I have grave doubts about the utility of laboratory research in most of sport psychology. And I am disturbed about the gulf between those who do sport psychology research and those who interpret sport psychology research to practitioners. (p. 56)
Martens (1987) again critically analyzed the various sources of knowing about sport performance in sport psychology and provided alternatives for not subscribing to the precepts of orthodox science. He contended that the field of experiential knowledge is rich in useful information and might be best approached using the idiographic approach, introspective methods, and field studies, to complement the methods of orthodox science.
One starting point within such a paradigmatic shift is to use a 'bottom-up' approach to studying expert performance, that is, by trying to find out what are the reported features that talented performers offer in any specific domain to explain their exceptional performances. The use of an expert systems approach appears to be applicable to sport as it has been done in a number of other specific domains.
Research which uses qualitative data methods such as structured interviewing and inductive content analysis, however, has been open to the criticism of subjectivity. Recently, however, qualitative research procedures have become increasingly refined and sophisticated in their conceptual bases (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), the interview procedures (Côté & Salmela, 1993), the computerized interpretation and organization of qualitative data (Côté, Salmela, Baria & Russell, 1993) and possible statistical applications to this data (Russell & Salmela, 1992).

Research with Athletes

Rather than studying sport's athletes and coaches using traditional behavior observation methods or standardized questionnaires, a number of researchers have begun to study the pertinent dimensions of athletic components such as sources of enjoyment (Scanlan, Ravizza & Stein, 1989), sources of stress (Scanlan, Stein & Ravizza, 1991) in figure skaters, as well as performance blockers and concerns of elite cyclist, judokas, cyclists and weightlifters (Russell & Salmela, 1992). These research thrusts have provided new insights into common phenomena which were central to the training and performance of athletes, but which were not open to inspection and analysis using traditional, orthodox methods of science.
An innovative study by Bloom (1985) used in-depth interviews to study the career development of Olympic swimmers and world class tennis players, as well as outstanding artists and scientists. The developmental nature of this study permitted Bloom to unveil three career phases of athletes, i.e., the initiation, development and perfection of their talents. The fact that Bloom was able to provide broad generalizations on the evolution of talented performers, whether they be athletes, artists or scientists, is particularly significant.

Research with Coaches

Analogous research on coaching using qualitative methods has been somewhat more sparse, although indications of the importance of such initiatives have recently been highlighted. For example, Gould, Giannini, Krane, and Hodge (1990) attempted to identify the educational needs of elite American coaches participating in the 1987 Pan American Games. The authors found it "disconcerting" that only 46% of the sample believed that "...there exists a well defined set of concepts and principles for coaches to use." (p. 337) In fact, the two most important knowledge sources which helped them develop their coaching style were "experience" and "other successful coaches."
Gould, Hodge, Peterson, and Petlichkoff (1987) also surveyed college coaches in order to determine the relative usefulness of a number of psychological strategies currently popular in the sport psychology literature. Some dissatisfaction was expressed of the usefulness of these concepts and the authors recommended that these approaches "... be supplemented in future investigations by actual observation of coaches in practices and competitions, and by in-depth interviews that allow for the acquisition and interpretation of rich qualitative data." (p. 307) These findings suggest that a reality grounded, 'bottom-up' approach might be useful in investigating such complex spheres of action as high level coaching.
It is within such a framework that the present research was carried out with a sample of eminent expert Canadian coaches of team sports. The process for the in-depth study of coaches and the resulting model of the coaching process (Côté, Trudel & Salmela, 1993) was initially developed using in-depth interviews with expert Canadian gymnastic coaches on the structure of their knowledge.
The purpose of the present project was to examine in detail the development and evolution of the applied knowledge and procedures of expert Basketball coaches using in-depth interviews and inductive content analysis. By initiating the research process with information that is grounded in reality, it is hoped that a road map of the evolution of coaching education might be enhanced.